No One Knows
by Constance-Lirit
Summary: One-shot Akatsuki story done for a friend, based on a dream she had and made into a plot by me. The Akatsuki are swindled out of money and information by a once trusted source, and are then sent by Pein to blindly hunt him down across the country. How will it all unfold?


They had been hunting down a traitor of the Akatsuki organisation for a month now, caught and on the run after swindling Pein, and Kakuzu mainly, out of, not only important documents, but also money needed to run their operation at its core. He had been difficult to track due to his notoriety in the underworld of Konoha, his professions notably being within the realms of bounty hunting, trafficking and drug smuggling to name a few.  
One would have thought that his kind of work would make him easy to find, or even easy to see, but none of his connections had seen him in months. He was well known for flying under the radar, but the fact that Zetsu, Kakuzu and Deidara could not find him was beginning to dismantle the last fibres of Pein's thin, tethered patience.

However, eventually they sprung upon a lead, found by Itachi while on a solo operation in the Fire country. There had been an unusual, alarming and unfamiliar increase in prostitution in the leaf village. Though the influential figure behind this could not be found at the time Itachi had an inkling as to who was the cause of this. The whole thing had the tell-tale finger print of their most wanted fugitive.  
He had brought the information back to their leader as soon as he could, mainly due to having a grudge against the pimp after he attempted to traffic Itachi, without the Akatsuki's knowledge or consent, and send him to the Snow country. The very recollection of the experience made the usually calm Uchiha's blood boil.

Upon gaining this important information brought back by the Uchiha, Pein sent everyone out to the three most possible locations he could fathom. Only Kakuzu knew what he looked like in person, though the description he gave the others only made them feel as though he had finally hit senility. Deidara, Tobi and Hidan had travelled back to the leaf village to meet up with Itachi, disguise themselves and see if they could find him. They did not bother to search the main village, as evidently he would not be there.  
Kakuzu, Zetsu, Sasori and Kisame, on the other hand, had went North-East to the country of lighting to search there. Arriving in Kumo they found that they did not have to disguise themselves as much as they usually needed to, as their faces were not as well known in such a semi-isolated region. Together the two groups searched high and low, questioned locals if they had seen any strange figures around and surveyed the environment for any unnatural damage, to which they came up with no other leads other than the fact that he had been here, and gone.

They had all but given up on the mission now, and even Kakuzu was beginning to feel that he would have made the money back, and more, by now had he just done some missions and killed a few people for ransoms here and there. Pein, however, was a stubborn mule and would not give up so easily. He refused to allow them to leave their positions, and so they were now held up in a shabby little hotel or cave waiting for more information to come in without any idea how long this ridiculous goose chase was going to last.  
Finally Tobi, surprisingly, came running with some knowledge he had picked up while on a 'walk'. Having come across a local who had been mumbling something about a rhino the flamboyant ninja ran to the others to tell them what he had heard, and instantly everyone was to their feet and on the hunt.

In a matter of hours they had finally caught up to their prey, and to their surprise Kakuzu's babble about his appearance was right. Stood in the trees they looked down on him from the shadows, and contemplated their next move. He was a large anthropomorphic rhino who seemed to dress in pimp attire, his sunglasses not all that necessary due to the dull climate of the landscape they were in. From what Deidara could tell he did not seem all that aware of their looming presence until they finally nodded to one another and sprung out upon him.  
All at once he was up in arms, his ears rolling as he bared his teeth and looked between them anxiously.  
"So you found me then? Took you long enough." he uttered, grinning somewhat.  
"Yeah, and about time." Kisame stated, reaching up to grab for his sword.  
"Well, I wont go down so easily." he grumbled, tensing his arms out at either side of his body as he bloated out his chest and ripped out of his clothes to display his expanding muscular definition. They knew that they were in for a bit of a fight.

Kisame was the first to go, raring for a fight. He swung his sword and the battle began. The shark was practically their shield, who took every punch and kick with diligent speed and without a complaint, while Kakuzu used his thread to decrease the rhino's spatial options and Zetsu tried to hold his feet down and give Kisame as much advantage in the realms of accuracy as possible.  
Hit by hit it seemed they were going nowhere until finally his strength and defences began to dwindle, as well as his charka. Chipping away at him they finally knocked him to his knees, and Kisame finished him off. Finally they had done away with the marauder, and Pein could rest in peace for a little while longer. This victory only tasted sweet for so long however, as this would never fix the losses they had gained before hand.

Surveying the wreckage Kakuzu pondered if he had many bounty on his head, while Sasori examined the body in the hopes of recovering it for his experiments in the Arts of puppetry. To his astonishment, when he knocked his knuckle against the horn it popped off, to reveal a stone on the inside. Picking it up and handing it to the miser Kakuzu examined the stone and evaluated its worth, though not that impressed to have found out that it was a amethyst carved into the shape of a flamingo. At least it would sell for a little profit, on top of his head.


End file.
